


Changing Everything

by Arytra



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: Dino Thunder Rangers do make an appearance, Families of Choice, It's mostly just a fluff fic, Other redeemed villains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 19:55:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13688697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arytra/pseuds/Arytra
Summary: Anton thought it was going to be a quiet Christmas:  Decorate the house, host the children, and deal with the fact that Tommy dumped most of it on him at the last minute.  But when a vicious monster is set on taking over Earth during the time between Dino Thunder and Mystic Force, and Rita and Zedd find that their warning can't make it through to Tommy, it's up to Anton to pull the group together to try to stop the end of the world.  And Power help that monster if it runs Christmas for his son and the other Dino Thunder Rangers.





	Changing Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously, I began writing this at Christmas. However, I didn't finish until recently. I waited on posting for one reason:
> 
> Happy Valentine's Day, Akume. I love you and I hope that you enjoy this fic.

Anton wasn't one for being told what to do. He was, of course, far happier telling people what to do instead as was the way his world was supposed to work whether he was evil or technically good. However, Tommy had had to take off for a while in an absolute panic as it had something to do with that space program he hadn't paid any sort of attention to and had asked him to watch the former Dino Thunder Rangers. Tommy was still worried about them, regardless of the fact that they were currently legal adults, and had requested that they join him for the winter holidays. He didn't bother to ask why they would be staying with him and not with their parents as he had a good guess why: The sorts of secrets that the teens would have had to have taken would have affected most relationships. There simply hadn't been enough time to repair the damage. Knowing this and how worried Tommy had been, Anton extended the invitation, adding that their mentor had requested it and went with that. To his surprise, each of them in turn had rather quickly agreed to come. He reminded them that Elsa would be there as well, but none of them were deterred. He finally gave up in showing them that they didn't need to take him up on the offer and had various rooms organized for them in accordance to their preference, having asked Trent for details. With that completed, he headed out onto his deck and stood next to Elsa who was already out, enjoying the view.

“I wasn't expecting Tom to leave,” he said quietly. He glanced out at the silent view. Being where they were in California meant that the weather was still mild with only the need for a slight coat. He wondered how things would have changed if Mesagog would have won and inwardly shook it off, not wanting to remember. Fortunately, Elsa answered before he had to try to pull himself off that track.

“Especially near Christmas,” she said, sounding a bit disapproving. The two were quiet for a minute before she continued. “When will they be here?”

“Three days,” he answered. “Are you certain this is alright? I know you're still trying to find your place in our family especially when it comes to Trent and adding the other three in can't make that easier.”

“He's been nothing but wonderful,” she assured him. “And I've tried to return the favor. We'll eventually work out a system with each other. Besides, it's better to have them here where we can keep an eye on them. I'm a little worried about how quickly Tom rushed off.”

“As am I,” he agreed. He sat back and looked at the sky trying to ignore the trepidation he was starting to feel. He wondered if it was because this would be the first Christmas since they defeated Mesagog as Elsa obviously felt it too. Inwardly, he knew it was most likely something worse than just nerves even if he couldn't guess what that thing was yet. He leaned into her and felt her lean back, both enjoying the slight touch from the other.

“What do you think will happen?” She asked, shattering his attempt to ignore the problem. “You know as well as I that something is coming even if we don't know what that is yet.”

“I think we just wait it out,” he answered, daring the world to destroy the holidays. Whatever it was could show up after New Year's. He hadn't been able to destroy the holidays and he wanted to believe so strongly that nothing else could either. She stood up and leaned into him.

“Come on,” she said. “We need to decorate.”

He followed her inside, not bothering to protest that he had people to do that for him. Elsa had been firm in her decision that they should do it like any other couple and the protests of wealth wasn't something she cared to listen to. He had decided it wasn't worth a fight, especially when she had told Trent and the young man's eyes had lit up. After, he'd turned to every source he had to find out how Christmases had been for Trent before his parents' deaths. Before he made it to the box, there was a knock at the door. Elsa looked up and he nodded that he'd answer it, pausing when he pulled out some ornaments for the large tree they had already acquired. “Lights go on first!” He reminded her, ignoring her glare.

“Then hurry back so I have help!” She answered. He grinned at that and went to answer the door.

“How can I help you?” He asked, hoping that it would be a quick talk. The three at the door, a man, woman, and child, were well-dressed, but obviously not from earth by their clothing. His hopes for a quick chat vanished and he quickly motioned for them to come inside before they were seen. The woman gave him a sheepish look.

“I apologize,” she said, giving her male companion a baleful look. “We haven't been on Earth in some time. It could have been worse. We could have dressed in 90's clothes.”

Anton laughed a bit at that. The man who was with her gave a similar look back while their young son just looked at him quietly. He quickly shut the door as they entered. “If you're looking for Tommy, he's out right now.”

“Do you know when he'll be back?” The man asked, just as casually. Anton was pleased that they were straight forward at least.

“He didn't say,” Anton answered. The man didn't seem like an alien bent on domination and had obviously been to earth, but Anton hadn't gained a financial empire nor helped to create biomechanical dinosaurs without have a fair amount of intelligence and he'd learned from that past experience about the importance of caution. The man and woman looked disappointed. The child, however, looked past them and his eyes lit up. He raced past the other adults and landed at Elsa's side. She looked at the boy.

“Is that a Christmas tree?” He asked. “I read about Christmas trees.”

“Yes, uh...” she started.

“Xarth,” he answered. “It was Thrax, but made it backward after Mom and Dad had... rehab.”

“Rehab,” Elsa said.

“Yeah?” He asked, quickly trying to change the subject. “So, do you just put these on the tree or is there an order?”

“We have to put the lights on first!” Anton called from the doorway. Elsa leaned in.

“I'm waiting for him to get back,” she whispered and the boy giggled. “First we put on the lights, then we put on the garland, then we put on the ornaments.”

“What about tinsel?” He asked.

“That would go on last, but Anton hates tinsel because it's messy,” she answered.

Anton just nodded from the doorway. “Rehab?” He asked.

“Yes, we used to have a problem and we saw the light and now we're in rehab,” the man said smoothly.

“And you're looking for Thomas Oliver?” He asked.

“Yes,” the woman answered. Anton paused for a minute and then shrugged as he realized what had happened.

“So, why would Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd need help?” He asked calmly. Both of them looked at him in surprise and horror, but he shook it off. He instead held out a hand. “Anton Mercer. That's my girlfriend, Elsa.”

Zedd took his hand carefully and Anton wondered if the other could toss him across the room if he wanted to. Instead, he just waited calmly. “How do you know who we are?”

“I've known Tom a long time,” Anton answered. “And then we had an... incident last year.”

“An incident?” Rita asked. Anton nodded. “Meaning?”

“Meaning I drank something I shouldn't have an became an evil dinosaur-like faux dictator,” Anton answered. “I got better.”

“So did we,” Zedd said, equally as dry. “And Elsa?”

“She was my henchwoman,” he answered. “We fought against Tom and his Rangers.”

Rita gave Zedd another look. “And you said we didn't need to check in more.”

“I was wrong,” Zedd assured her. He followed Anton into the living room and the latter motioned for him to continue. “I was tracking an alien. He's been responsible for the destruction of several worlds and he finally headed toward this one.”

“Bad timing,” Elsa muttered. Anton leaned into her.

“I don't think that they take Christmas holidays into consideration when they decided to be evil villains,” he reminded her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“We should have,” she answered. “It's our first Christmas. Trent is coming home.”

“Trent?” Zedd asked.

“My son,” Anton answered. “He was one of Tommy's Rangers.”

Zedd looked at him and then finally shrugged it off. “Do you think they could handle this problem?”

“They used up all of their powers,” Elsa said. “We don't have that many active Rangers right now and we can't get a hold of any of them without Tom's help.”

“Damn,” Rita hissed. “We have to do something...”

There was silence between both groups for a moment before Elsa spoke up again. “We can't be the only former villains out there.”

“We're not,” Rita said and her eyes met Elsa's. “Of course!”

“Who better?” Elsa asked, thrilled that the other realized where she was going with it. “We know how to think like them and we're not Rangers, but most of us aren't helpless either.”

Zedd looked at them critically. “You two want to fight an intersellar villain who has been responsible for the deaths of several worlds with the help of every reformed villain we can find. At Christmastime.”

“Hopefully in three days before the kids get home,” Anton muttered. Rita shook her head.

“That isn't doable. But we can tell them that they are not allowed to be involved. That's one of those joys of being a parent,” she said with a grin.

“They're adults,” Elsa said.

“And?” She asked. “We found it first, we get to make the rules.”

“Does it work that way?”

“Why not?” Rita asked. “Alright. I'll call Divatox. Do we have a list of other former villains?”

“Give me five minutes,” Elsa answered, picking up the phone. Zedd looked over at Anton.

“So, Rita and I have magic,” he started.

“Genius intelligence,” he answered. “Just not the best at knowing how to apply it.”

“What villain does?” He asked.

“Got it!” Elsa said, rushing back in. “Okay, there's Marah and Kapri from the Wind Academy.”

“Space ninjas,” Anton explained. Zedd nodded as if this was the most normal thing to hear in the world and Anton found himself wondering, not for the first time how weird his life really was. He was pretty sure it wouldn't be hard to keep Kapri and Marah under control, but she would talk with Cam if he got worried. He nodded for them to continue.

“We have Ransik, but we can't really use him,” Elsa continued. “What about Andros' sister? Karone? Does she identify as a former villain or a Ranger?”

“Invite her anyway,” Rita said. “Sometimes it just feels nice to be invited. Why can't we use Ransik?”

“Time travel. Eric especially gets grumpy when we suggest it. Of course, if Anton would stop suggesting it so often...” she began. 

“What is the point of having Rangers associated with time travel if they aren't willing to use it?” Anton grumbled. Elsa ignored him.

“And then there's the two Orgs: Jindrax and Toxica. They might be happy to help out,” she offered.

“What's an Org and what do you mean there was time travel again?” Rita asked. “We didn't notice any changes. Did anyone change ages?”

“I don't think so. Different kind of time travel, I guess?” Elsa offered. Rita just held her head and motioned for them to continue. “And an Org is a pollution monster. As the two of them walked away from evil at the end of it, I think we should look into it.”

“Do they have anything special they can do?” Rita asked. “We might as well start planning.”

“Right,” she said. “They have sword-fighting and magic. We're going to be stocked up on magic.”

“Good,” Zedd said. “You can't have too much magic. So, ninjas, a pirate, three magic users, a former mad scientist, and...”

“A mad scientist's assistant,” Elsa offered. “I can't remember most of my fighting abilities from when I was evil.”

They brushed it off. “We're writing off Karone?” Rita asked.

“I'm guessing,” he said. Rita nodded. She was sure like her husband that while Karone would be fine helping, she might feel a bit weird about the team up. Plus, the last time they'd heard, she was on Mirinoi and it would take too longer for her to get back. It was best to come up with a plan with people you were pretty sure you could convince.

***

A short time later and they were pretty sure that they had reached everyone possible. They wouldn't be able to finish before Dino Thunder arrived, but they could start before that. The only problem was that Xarth was involved and none of them wanted the child hurt. Anton nodded, accepting that and made a phone call. Elsa just laughed when Conner didn't bother to knock, managed to ignore the butler, and sauntered into the living room.

“I still think we can help more than that,” Conner said. “But you've got a baby-sitter. The others are coming.”

“Thank you, Conner,” Anton said. “What did Kira or Trent say to convince you?”

“Trent laid it on thick,” he said with a grin. “Something about how he had his chance to get past things and we should encourage you guys. So, we'll watch the kid, you can go save the world or whatever, and then we'll have Christmas. Your cook can make cookies, right?”

“Try not to overdo it,” Elsa said. “You don't want a sugar rush.”

“Yes,” Anton said sardonically. “It would be horrible if Xarth had to deal with Conner on one of those.”

Conner gave him a look before easily distracting Xarth away from the adults. Anton made a note to thank his son for the words of encouragement as well as to tell him that he had very good choices in friends if they listened to him that quickly. With Rita and Zedd's son out of the way for the moment, that gave them the chance to make the plans. Sure enough, they got the response back from Karone first which was a polite denial as she was too far away and agreed that she'd already been able to work through her own redemption, but she was completely supportive to the rest of them participating.

They heard from the space ninjas that they would be there as soon as they could, but they needed to make sure that things were going to be alright at the ninja school before they did so. Cam had reassured them that they would be on their way as soon as possible and that he'd have the Wind Rangers pack for them if they didn't leave soon. Anton tried to hold back his amusement at the former Green Ranger's near glee at getting rid of his cousins for the weekend. Toxica and Jindrax sent them a message that said they were working their way there. They didn't received a response from Divatox at all.

Instead, they heard the knock on the door and when Anton answered, they saw the woman standing there, looking for all intents and purposes completely amused. “You must be Anton. Zedd and Rita mentioned you.”

“Divatox?” He asked, taking a stab in the dark. She beamed back at him.

“You got it!” She said. He motioned for her to enter and she looked over.

“Rita!” She squealed, rushing over to the other woman and pulling her into a hug. Rita returned it, smiling back. “Did I miss anything?”

“We're still getting organized,” Rita assured her. “Did you find anything out?”

“Did I find anything. Rita, it's me. I still have some clout,” she said waving it off. “Hi Zedd.”

“Hello Divatox,” he said, rubbing his temple as he watched her. Anton felt his pain and was pleased for one over the lack of close friends Elsa and he had at the moment. The closest thing that Elsa had to a confidant was Hayley and she tended to be far more help than hindrance. Elsa might not feel the same way about Tommy's friendship with Anton at times, but Divatox seemed far worse. 

“So, this guy finds out about things for whatever planet he wants and uses it,” she said. “And he decided to take in the culture here. Now.”

“So Christmas?” Elsa asked. Divatox nodded.

“And because of this, he decided that he could take things over by looking the part. The idiot. Who here hasn't tried that?” She asked. Conner looked over from where he was sitting and raised his hand cheekily. Xarth looked at him and raised his hand too. Divatox narrowed her eyes. “Okay, what were your master plans?”

“Conner is a Ranger and Xarth looks to be about ten,” Anton said dryly. “I'm certain they had other things on their mind.”

Divatox blinked. “I know that you two were going to find the former Rangers out of desperation,” she said, looking at Rita and Zedd. She turned her attention to Elsa and Anton. “But you two are friends with Power Rangers?”

“Well, yes,” Elsa said. “I worked with Tommy professionally as well. I still do actually.”

“She was my principal. She sucked,” Conner said. Elsa gave him a look. “I like you now.”

“Thanks, Conner,” she said rolling her eyes. “One of the other Rangers is Anton's son.”

“You had a weird set-up,” Divatox informed her. Elsa and Conner just shrugged while Anton counted backward from ten silently. “Okay, so we take down the evil Christmas alien and then what?”

“And then we're going to celebrate Christmas,” Anton said firmly. Conner side-eyed him, glancing at Elsa who just gave him a soothing smile. “And it will be the best Christmas.”

“That's a good plan,” Rita said, starting to wonder if Zordon had chosen Earth because all humans were apparently insane. “I'm more focused on actually winning at the moment. We have a good team set up, but we're going to need more than that by the end of today, won't we.”

“We have the start to a plan,” Zedd said. “We're just waiting for the rest of the players. Then we can go straight to him and take him down.”

“I look forward to finishing this,” Anton agreed.

“Well, I haven't been to Earth since Zordon died. It looks nice,” Divatox said. “So, since we have some time, what was your evil plan?”

“Dinosaurs,” Anton and Elsa answered. She blinked.

“You were a space pirate,” Rita reminded her. “Who wanted to marry a demon.”

“So, dinosaurs! That sounds interesting!” She said quickly and Rita nodded, content with the situation. Anton waited until they were all busy talking before heading into the kitchen for a moment, taking the break he desperately needed. He heard the door open and tried to hide his groan. Zedd stepped inside.

“It gets easier,” he offered, getting himself a glass of water. Anton looked at him. “Realizing what you did when you were evil. Rita and I have over 10,000 years to get past. And there are a lot of worlds we can't go to. Earth is unique. You're lucky you belong here.”

“I can't imagine that the other Rangers would care that much if you were here,” he offered. Zedd smiled.

“I appreciate it,” he said. “But our home was Eltar. They were less forgiving.”

“Oh,” he said. They were silent for a minute before Anton continued. “And the darker impulses? Do you even have any anymore?”

“We do,” Zedd said. “He made us more human, not saints. Even Zordon wasn't a saint.”

“Really?” Anton asked and Zedd groaned.

“Tommy?”

“Tommy,” Anton said.

“Never trust the team of Rangers to judge their mentor. It's rare that you'll find a group that will badmouth them. It's ingrained into them, I think, but it's 'My mentor, good or bad' and they tend to leave out anything bad,” he said. “Ask your son and his friends about Tommy sometime and see what they say. Or watch what they say to other Rangers.”

Anton looked surprised by this, but it did make sense in a way. Mentors, for a Ranger team, tended to point them in the right direction and direct them when they needed it. It made sense that they would have rose colored glasses when they were willing to follow that person to the ends of the earth, after all. He smiled a bit at that. “That's good to know, actually.”

“I think it's our jobs as former villains to carry the knowledge of what they might have done wrong so that people don't tend to make them legends,” he said.

“What's wrong with a legend?” He asked.

“A legend isn't a person. It's an idea in a human body and people compare against it. Sometimes, that's good. Other times, it's not. I think we can both agree to that,” he said. Anton nodded. He had the extra bit of having known Tom before they were on opposite sides as well as having a son involved. He'd made some terrible decisions, but so had Tommy. It would be good to make sure future generations understood that. Zedd nodded. “Take as much time as you need in here. I'll make sure that no one distracts you.”

“Thank you,” He said. He sat there for a while longer. He heard Zedd turn away some of the others from the door and just tried to focus. The problem with villains was that every last one of them was egotistical, himself included, which meant that it was going to be egos pushing up against each other over the next few days and that could be the problem that they were trying to avoid, if he wanted to be honest about it. This could end up in a situation that no one wanted, including him, and that was where they needed to be more careful about it.

“Anton!” He heard Elsa call out. “The ninjas are here!”

Fortunately, he'd already met Kapri and Marah. While the two were out of there, their egos fortunately ran lesser than the others. Instead, their need for approval was going to be the larger problem. When the Orgs showed up soon after, he was relieved that they weren't as bad either. He amended his thoughts to be egotistical head villains, but that didn't mean that there weren't going to be problems anyway. Sure enough, the various groups had several different ideas on how to handle things. He tried to keep it under control, but each of them weren't anything alike.

So when Conner grabbed his arm and dragged him into the kitchen, he let the boy do it. “You need to take control.”

“What?” Anton said. “We don't have...”

“Exactly and that's the problem, Dr. Mercer. Zedd and Rita lead as a team, but there aren't enough of you for that to work. Kapri and Marah aren't leaders. Toxica and Jendrix don't want to be leaders. And I really don't think letting Divatox be in charge is a good idea. So that leave you and Elsa. Elsa follows you. So you win!” He said.

“Lucky me,” Anton said, rubbing his head. Conner just grinned at him. “Did you feel like this?”

“Wait until Zedd starts challenging you for command and you start to let him,” Conner answered. “Which, you know, don't do that. Just run this like you would your business.”

“Delegate?” He asked.

“Sure,” Conner said. He looked too innocent when he said it. “What would I know about business?”

Anton raised an eyebrow, handed him a cookie. The young man took it, grabbed another for Xarth with a speed that Anton hadn't seen since he was a Ranger and headed out. He really needed to compliment his son on his choice of friends. He headed back into the main room. “Enough!”

He was more than slightly pleased that they all turned and looked at him. Both of the young ninjas looked relieved, the pirate looked furious, Jindrax and Toxica looked intrigued, and the last two just waited. He continued. “Yelling at each other isn't working and we're all use to going about this in different ways. Elsa, do you remember any of your fighting style?”

“No,” she answered. He threw something at her and she caught it easily, looking at him in surprise. “How did you know?”

“I've caught the kids doing it from time to time,” he answered. “Alright. Rita, Toxica, you're our range support. Elsa, try to keep anything from reaching them. Zedd, Divatox, you two attack from the front. Jindrax, lay in wait. Take down anything that gets past them. Kapri, Marah, I need the two of you to attack from the back.”

“What about you?” Divatox asked. Anton just smirked rather than answering right away. He was pleased when he caught Trent quietly leading Kira and Ethan toward Conner. Now that everyone had arrived, they could get to work.

***

“When you said Christmas related, I wasn't expecting that we'd be fighting Santa Claus!” Elsa exclaimed. Rita reached over to pat her arm.

“Don't worry. It's not the real one,” she assured her.

“How do you know that?” She asked.

“We've met,” she answered.

“You met Santa Claus? Santa Claus is real?” She asked.

“Yes,” Rita said. “Ask Tommy about how they went to help at his workshop one time as well.”

“You mean there's more of him?” Toxica asked in horror.

“The other one is good,” Rita assured her.

“Ah. Evil twin,” she said, completely understanding what she thought the situation was. The other two women decided against trying to explain it at the moment.

“I hate to be negative,” Rita said. “But are you sure your boyfriend's plan will work? We're barely holding on!”

“We're holding on better than we were when they were swarming us,” she answered. She nodded in agreement with her there. “So, we'll be fine. Anyway, what else can we do about this?”

“I don't know,” Rita said. “That's why I was willing to listen and why Divatox is taking out her anger at not leading us all on that group.”

“Which we appreciate,” Elsa snarked. “He just doesn't want damage done to his final weapon.”

“Why?” Rita asked. “What does it matter if we win?”

“He wants a good Christmas,” she answered, hearing the calls of the raptors. “Trust me, if you destroy your son's best friends' favorite pets, you're not going to have a good Christmas.”

She refused to look downward to see if her fool of a boyfriend were riding the things, but she did watch as they decimated the sleigh and demon reindeer.

***

Anton hadn't tried to get on their backs, but had instead instructed the raptors to go for the throat. Now, they just needed someone to finish it. He looked over at Zedd who nodded. He moved in a way that directed the minions away from him as Jindrax took up the slack and herded them toward Divatox. Zedd aimed his staff as lightening crackled. The fight ended.

He did a quick head count. “Where is Kapri?” He asked.

Each of them looked around and he felt his heart raise into his throat when he heard her voice. “Here! Sorry! There was a large pile of these things and I was not going to climb over it.”

He relaxed and waved her off in acknowledgement. They all gathered around. “We did it,” he said.

“It could have gone worse,” Zedd said, sounding pleased.

“I think I know why Zordon picked teenagers now,” Rita grumbled, stretching a bit. “Without all my dark magic, it's starting to hurt.”

“I'll feel it tomorrow,” Divatox said, glancing at Anton. “That definitely could have gone worse, Tony.”

He didn't bother to correct her. “It's done,” he said. He paused for a minute, realizing what he was about to suggest might not have been the best idea, but feeling charitable at the moment. “We will have more than enough room and food if anyone wants to stay for dinner.”

“We need to get back to the academy,” Marah said. Kapri nodded.

“Cousin is expecting us,” she agreed.

“It was fun!” Marah exclaimed. “Call us anytime we need to do it again!”

With that, both ninjas raced off. Jindrax and Toxica looked at them as well. “We appreciate it,” Jindrax said. “But we don't know much about the holiday and we still have a lot of our own journey to work on.”

“Thanks for inviting us,” Toxica added and the two left. Divatox snorted.

“It's a lovely planet,” she said. “But I'm a pirate at heart, so I'm taking off. I had a blast, but next time, I'll lead.”

Once she left, Rita looked at Anton and Elsa. “I formally vote that she is never allowed to be in charge ever.”

“Seconded,” Anton said. “All in favor?”

“Yea,” the other two agreed. He didn't bother to ask if anyone was opposed. Zedd looked around.

“We don't have anywhere else to be,” he said quietly. “And it would be nice to see Tommy again.”

“Good,” Elsa said. “Xarth was intrigued by the tree.”

“Were you really their principal?” Rita asked.

“Yes,” she answered. “If they hadn't graduated, I still would be.”

“How did you manage that?” Rita asked.

“Apparently Toxica isn't the only one who thinks that there are evil twins everywhere,” she answered. “It was remarkably easy to convince the board.”

Zedd glanced at Anton who just nodded. They headed home.

***

“So, there is a real Santa? Doctor O isn't just nuts when he writes to him every year and leaves out cookies?” Conner asked.

“Conner!” Tommy snapped.

“What? It's a good question,” Conner argued. Rita laughed.

“It's true,” she assured him. “We tried to take over his workshop.”

“That's definitely evil,” Conner said, nodding. Tommy was just holding his head in his hand and wondering where his life went wrong. Well, that's what Anton was assuming anyway from how his student was reacting.

“And none of you thought that maybe trying to take stuff from a guy with magic and elves was a bad idea?” Kira asked.

“It was working,” Zedd answered. 

“Considering that there's still a Santa, I don't think it worked enough,” Ethan said. Zedd looked over at Tommy.

“No control over them at all?” He asked sardonically. Tommy snorted.

“You can't control teens,” he said.

“I have control of Xarth,” Zedd said proudly.

“He's what? Ten? See me in five years and we'll talk,” Tommy snorted before looking over at his students.

“By the way, Anton calls you to let you know what's going on and none of you thought to use the Ranger phone book?” He asked.

“Oh right,” Ethan said disinterestedly. “We could have done that.”

“Huh,” Kira said, equally monotonic. “Well, we'll know better for next time.”

“Got it. Book next time,” Conner said, obviously not listening at all to the lecture. Trent just gave a quiet smile.

“They had it under control,” he answered. Anton gave his son a slight squeeze around the shoulders. He was more than appreciative over his son's belief in him after everything that had happened the year before. The fact that his friends had done the same also helped a lot more than he would have guessed. Tommy made an annoyed noise and Hayley kicked him under the table. Anton leaned over to Zedd.

“I see what you meant earlier,” he said quietly. Zedd nodded.

“I knew you would,” he answered. “I appreciate the help.”

“Same to you,” Anton answered. “And thank you for coming to save Earth. So, I have to ask: What was Zordon like?”

“The unedited version?” Zedd asked, making certain Tommy wasn't listening. Anton nodded. “He used children to fight. That's already a huge strike against him. I haven't been able to ask but did Tommy...?”

“No, the kids did it to themselves,” Anton assured him. “I have a feeling someone's original plan was to live out his glory days. And he eventually did.”

“Every mentor has their flaws,” Zedd repeated. He nodded in agreement as they sat their watching over the table. Conner was sneaking cookies to Xarth while Kira distracted Tommy. Ethan had easily done the same to Hayley by using science while Trent was politely talking with Rita and giving Conner hand-signals when it was a good time to do it. Elsa had noticed, but didn't bother to speak up, looking more amused than anything and helping her future step-son out when necessary.

Anton's life had fallen out of control when he'd made a large mistake, but he couldn't feel too badly about it now. His plan had failed and allowed him to help today. He had a table filled with people he would have been distressed not to know. It was just a matter of time before something else happened again. Perhaps something that would require all of them to be involved. He hoped not for Earth's sake and the Power help whomever tried to strike at Christmas again, but part of him wanted to work beside his son and the rest of the family that he was slowly creating.


End file.
